It seems that all roads DO lead to Rome … and you have to walk all of them. Well, that’s the way it felt. But we realized that Rome wasn’t conquered in a day – it was a nine day campaign for us.
The ancient Romans had chariots. We opted for Electric assist bikes to get around the first day. OY! Centrale Roma was a zoo. Pedestrians on their May Day holiday weekend, shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow, oblivious as to how their movement affects others put our bike-adventuring group through some unexpected and stressful maneuvers. Perhaps chariots would’ve been a better choice. The E-assist on the bikes though, was awesome – we effortlessly scaled the hills of Roma. Up and away from the masses.
We also enjoyed Jobe, the Neil de Grasse Tyson of Roman history. What a great tour guide! He regaled us with stories of Rome through the ages – not your everyday history lesson.
The Colosseum especially blew Michael away. Talk about bringing history to life – bigger than life! As we stood in the emperor’s box and looked out over the ‘field’ it was easy to imagine “games” of the past and the people being entertained on so many levels.
While we rocked the Metro system with ease, Roma has a few geographical quirks. Did you know that streets in Roma change names about every 30 feet? Well, that’s if the street actually has a name. Many do not. Oh, and addresses seem to be optional. Those facts frequently presented navigational challenges. Yes, it is easy to be lost in Rome. And we were. But eventually we got found – every time! We have come to love Uber.
We dipped our toes into cultural waters at The Borghese Art Gallery. It is truly a Mecca of art treasures. While in Rome, we have become huge fans of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. His impact throughout Rome is most impressive. While Michelangelo brought form and scale to sculpture, Bernini sculpted stone into life with emotion and movement. It’s pretty awesome.
Because it’s now considered one of the wonders of the modern world, we toured Vatican City and its museums, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. Simply amazing. Books have been written about all of this. Well, I’ll just say from our point of view, Michelangelo’s masterpiece – the ceiling is jaw-dropping. The scale and extravagance of St. Peter’s is mind-boggling. From the perspective of a librarian, I am impressed that the Vatican library is beautifully preserving history.
The Piazza de Fiori hosts a ginormous farmers market everyday. We browsed and sampled fresh fruits, vegetables, aged balsamic vinegars and lovely olive oils as part of a food walking tour. Now, I found myself wondering why we don’t see these healthy items offered on most menus in restaurants throughout Rome. We have seen that ‘Bars’ which proffer various delivery forms of caffeine, gelato, all kinds of delicious pastries, a full bar and wine seem to lack any form of protein or veggies. These Bars appear in every block. Then there’s Pizza. Roma style-thin crust, sitting under warming lights and looking fairly unappealing. It’s everywhere. Every other store front. Then, perusing the posted menus outside, in front of ‘sit-down’ restaurants, we note that the majority of each menu is pizza, pasta and pane (bread). How do these people stay slim and healthy? Well, they’re not obese. Enough about food. I’m getting very hungry!
We enjoyed Roma at night. Especially, the night we joined ‘Blitch’ [no, we didn’t ask] our Ghost & Mysteries storyteller. He led 4 of us around Central Roma sharing interesting, sometimes gruesome, and always entertaining tales. Definitely a highlight of our visit to the Eternal City.
Sant’Angello
So, after ‘conquering’ Roma, we headed south on a fast train. It was pretty cool. – a smooth and quiet ride. We stayed at a lovely ‘villa-type’ Airbnb. Our intent was to visit Pompeii & climb Vesuvius and then visit the Amalfi Coast. Well, it turned out to be 2 out of 3. We were rained out for our Amalfi Coast boat adventure. We’ll be back in better weather to enjoy the Amalfi.
Pompeii is an archeological wonder. It was fascinating to see the excavation. Turns out the people of Pompeii in 79 AD were quite the party people. Life was short and they knew how to have a good time. The public baths were very popular hang outs. There was even a Red Light District – as many as 25 bordellos. Seems they also considered the penis as a symbol of good luck. The archeologists have found the symbol carved in stone all over town. See pic below.
Now those are some stones! Gives a whole new meaning to rock hard. [I just couldn’t resist.]
Vesuvius was quite the climb! No, we didn’t start at the very bottom but it sure felt like it. Our coach took us to the start of the hiking trail. We huffed & puffed about a mile, zigzagging our way up into the clouds. Arriving at the crater, that’s exactly what we saw – clouds & fog.
Well that’s enough for now. We’re ‘fast-training ‘to Florence as I type. And that’s a whole ‘other Oprah – a story for another day.
We hope all is well in your worlds – we still can’t believe we’re really here…